Brazil insurance regulator to focus on competition

Brazilian insurance regulator Susep will focus its work on improving regulations in order to generate more competition and growth in the insurance sector.

"We have to propose changes to grow,” Solange Viera, head of Susep, said at a meeting with reporters.

Viera was appointed Susep head after market-friendly President Jair Bolsonaro came to power in January.

The focus of the new Susep administration will also include a strong focus on improved service for insurance consumers, job generation in the insurance sector, and the creation of more insurtechs, she said without giving details about new regulatory measures.

Susep has already begun to evaluate measures to ease access to the insurance market for insurtechs in order to boost competition and improve insurance penetration.

Like the country's banking industry, there is high concentration in the main business segments of Brazil's insurance sector with insurers linked to big banks being the dominant players.

Vieira also said she supported the government's intention to create a single regulator to oversee the country's insurance and pension industries, by merging Susep and Previc, which is the regulator for complementary pension funds.

The merger would generate a lot of synergies and better convergence between insurance and pension sector regulations, she said.

Once the government has finished its analysis of merging the regulators, it is likely to undertake the change via a presidential decree or a legislative bill, which would take approximately two months in the case of a decree and 120 days in the case of a bill, said Vieira.